Alexander Mourant is an artist, educator and writer based in London, and born in Jersey. The work of Alexander Mourant embraces autobiography, literature and reference-based thinking, to create narratives that question the relationship between the body and the photographic medium. Mourant proposes how images may deal with temporality, spatiality and reflexivity, through new ways of thinking, and alludes to the photographic becoming a terrain itself, and a place we traverse.

Aomori

“It is peculiar how forests have such an affect on us,” observes Jersey-born photographer Alexander Mourant of his latest project Aomori, which was shot in Japan’s ancestral forests. “As temporal dimensions crumble, objectivity leaves us. We are found in a still, oneiric state, contemplating our own accumulation of experience.” (link)

These Images where taken in Japan as the name suggests, as Aomori meaning ‘blue forest’ in Japanese. The link between these two words creates Ideas on forests, as well as the nature of blue. “Together they create a place of high intensity, a place which questions our relationship to time, colour and self.”

The process to take these images was to use a church’s stained glass window, which was cut to make a lens filter. This adds spiritual history through the creation process, which also adds to the rich culture of Japan. “Susan Bright commented on the religious symbolism of my work, saying: ‘the spiritual history of the process seeps through into the image, to a time when the land was a place of worship,’”

His main inspiration for these blue monochrome Images was Yves Klein, and particularly his studies in the colour blue. Yves Klein used blue as it representing his spirituality and religious upbringing, the essence of natural elements like water and sky, and the vast expanse of the universe.

Above is one image from his from his work ‘Aomori’. From a first glace, you can see a heavily dense and humid forest, with the tropical flora coving the whole image. Closer to the top of the image, the bright mid-day sun is breaking it way though the plants, and reflecting off moist plants far into the depths of this forest. This creates an very atmospheric image, and draws the viewer into this magical world.

Blue in art is often used to create peace and tranquillity, and its defiantly shown in this image. The blue colour and the white highlights shining off the plants make this image feel like a old and enjoyable memory of a peaceful time. These Images engulf the viewer into a a mysterious voyage where both sorrow and beauty are tied together. These photos feel ancient, peaceful and respectful, party due to the strong blue that exposes itself to the viewer, as well as how these forests from Japan have taken centuries to form.

The lightness

This work gravitates more towards green instead of the blue from the previous project by Mourant. There was no reason for this, but as Mourant stated, ‘I think this leads into a more intuitive way of making photographs’ and ‘the photographs emerged in a way that most suits them’. To take these Images there was a lot less planning as ‘spontaneous’ process was favoured, looking for the nature of weightlessness in photographs. His main inspiration was from a book called the Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera. These pictures where taken in various parks around London.

Man Ray (1890–1976) was an American artist known for his experimental photography and role in the Surrealist movement. Even though he was initially trained as a painter, he became most famous for his experimental photography. His “rayographs” (an approach to photography and often called photograms) and dreamlike images pushed artistic boundaries, influencing Surrealist photography. In 1921 Man Ray moved to Paris which is where his artistic career started, as he became associated with the Parisian Dada and Surrealist circles of artists and writers. He experimented with many different mediums including films, Photography, painting, sculptures and even fashion.

To take his surrealist photographs, he would be required to think completely automatically, so the photographs are unconscious and imaginary to the purest form. Surrealism manifested itself in a juxtaposition of words that was startling because it was determined not by logical but by psychological.

rayographs

“I have finally freed myself from the sticky medium of paint, and am working directly with light itself.”

To make his rayograph, he placed objects, materials, and sometimes parts of his own or a model’s body onto a sheet of photosensitized paper and exposed them to light, creating negative images. He embraced the possibilities for irrational combinations and random arrangements of objects, emphasizing the abstraction of images made in this way. Below is an example where the image is centred around a comb:

In this image, There are only shades black and white due to the technique used. The Image is a negative as the objects acted as a shadow for the light sensitive paper. There is only one clear Item that can be identified, which is the comb in the centre. The arrangements of objects around the comb keeps it the centre of focus and makes the viewer wonder about the importance of this object. We can also see many lines thought the image, which keeps the overall composition even and pleasant to look at. The confusion that this image creates through its use of objects that cant be interpreted reminds the viewer of dreams that they may have had, where some parts are clear but once the whole dream is put together its complete nonsense.

The way this image has been produced emphasizes the influence of the light and shadow instead of the importance of the picture itself. Looking at this article helps understand why he took these images.

Glass Tears, 1932

This photo was taken in Paris and is one of Ray Man’s strongest photos, and was often composed with other photos. Here you can see a cropped image of a woman’s face, with unusually large tears, as well as the models eyes, with her mascara-coated lashes looking off to the distance. This makes the viewer wonder what she was looking at. The eyebrows are tilted down which suggests she is in a sad emotional state, giving questions on why she is feeling distressed. The lighting is highly exposed, using studio lighting which was likely done to expose the truths about this model.

It terns out that this is not a real woman but a fashion mannequin with glass bead tears on the cheeks. This was likely done as Ray Man recently broke up with his lover and wanted to have revenge on her. The large, glistening teardrops are melodramatic, an exaggerated sign of sadness that makes a mockery of the sentiment. It may also be because Man Ray is exploring his interest in the real and unreal by challenging the meaning of still-life photography, which links to the surrealist art movement. The eyes being the main focal point of this image is common theme used by surrealist artists as it is an important symbol of inner vision, a concept central to their philosophy.

Other Images I like

Different …ISMS I’ve looked at from the early 20th century:

CUBISM, FAUVISM, DADAISM, DE STIJL, RUSSIAN CONSTRUCTIVISM, SUPREMATISM, FUTURISM, SURREALISM, EXPRESSIONISM.

I will be analysing cubism, futurism and surrealism, looking at the manifesto, and how they are united together.

cubism

Art Examples (mostly Pablo Picasso):

Photography examples ( DAVID HOCKNEY):

About Cubism:

Cubism was a revolutionary new approach to representing reality invented in around 1907–08 by artists Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. It transformed everyday objects, landscapes, and people into geometric shapes.

The Cubist style emphasized the flat, two-dimensional surface of the picture plane, rejecting the traditional techniques of perspective, foreshortening, modeling, and chiaroscuro and refuting time-honored theories that art should imitate nature.

By using cubes instead of curved lines, the artist is able to distort the image, creating an illusions and changing the perspective. Cubists believed they could give the viewer a more accurate understanding of an object, landscape or person by showing it from different angles or viewpoints, so they used flat geometric shapes to represent the different sides and angles of the objects. By doing this, they could suggest three-dimensional qualities and structure without using techniques such as perspective and shading.

surrealism:

About Surrealism:

The poet Guilliame Apollinaire first coined the term “Surreal” in reference to the idea of an independent reality, existing “beneath” our conscious reality.

Surrealism started with the artist Andre Breton back in the 1920s. He was interesting in the dreams and the unconscious mind, balancing this with the rational vision of life. Many surrealist artists have used automatic drawing (creating art without conscious thought) or writing to unlock ideas and images from their unconscious minds. Others have wanted to depict dream worlds or hidden psychological tensions.

In many instances, these artists have turned to political activism. In this way, the revolutionary concepts encouraged by Surrealism has led the movement to be seen as a way of life.

Beginnings of Surrealism

Surrealism grew out of the Dada movement (formed during the First World War in Zurich in negative reaction to the horrors and folly of the war), which was also in rebellion against middle-class complacency. Artistic influences, however, came from many different sources. The most immediate influence for several of the Surrealists was Giorgio de Chirico, their contemporary who, like them, used bizarre imagery with unsettling juxtapositions (and his Metaphysical Painting movement). They were also drawn to artists from the recent past who were interested in primitivism, the naïve, or fantastical imagery, even artists from as far back as the Renaissance.https://www.theartstory.org/movement/surrealism/.

How to take Surrealism photographs

below are some Ideas I have to create surrealist photography:

• Photomontage
• Choice of Color
• Floating the Subject
• creating interesting perspectives
• using reflection
• multiple exposures
• distortion

By using unconventional techniques, like the ones above, surrealist photographers turned a previously mechanical tool into a medium via which they could express the avant-garde framework of the surrealist movement.

Futurism:

About Futurism:

‘we will free Italy from her innumerable museums which cover her like countless cemeteries’

Above is a quote by by the Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti in 1909. He started the movement and among modernist movements futurism was exceptionally vehement in its denunciation of the past. This was because in Italy the weight of past culture was felt as particularly oppressive.

Futurist painting used elements of neo-impressionism and cubism to create compositions that expressed the idea of the dynamism, the energy and movement, of modern life. (tate)

How I will use these movements:

By doing research into these movements, I have been able to find more inspiration for the topic of union. For example, I can use surrealism to talk about the union between the conscious and unconscious mind through photography, as well as analyse artists like Man Ray to further add to my studies. I can also look at the union between past, present and future with the Futurism art movement, researching further into Italian history potentially using my Italian relatives to help me.

the action of joining together or the fact of being joined together, especially in a political context.

synonyms to Union:

• abutment
• accord
• agglutination
• agreement
• amalgam
• amalgamation
• blend
• centralization
• combination
• commixture
• compound
• concatenation
• conciliation
• concord
• concurrence
• confluence
• congregation
• conjunction
• consolidation
• correlation
• coupling
• fusion
• harmony
• hookup
• incorporation
• intercourse
• joint
• junction
• juncture
• meeting
• merging
• mixture
• seam
• symbiosis
• synthesis
• tie up
• tie-in
• unanimity
• unification
• unison
• uniting
• unity

Using these synonyms I may be able to formulate different ideas. Just from reading this, I’m already thinking about team sports from the word ‘connection’, as well as items that work well together like certain foods, the environment/ecosystem working together, family and relationships.

Mood Board:

Above I created a mood board with a few Ideas I’m having to do with union. I used a few Ideas given from the exam paper and a few of my own to create it.